India, Dec. 5 -- The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition challenging the cover of author Arundhati Roy's book "Mother Mary Comes to Me", holding that the literary work required creative freedom and did not violate any tobacco-control laws merely because the cover image shows her smoking a beedi.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that the cover could not be construed as promoting smoking or advertising tobacco products, and emphasised that neither the author nor the publisher intended to endorse smoking.

The bench refused to interfere with the October 13 decision of the Kerala high court, which had rejected a similar challenge, and observed that the present litigation lacked su...